The Mid City West Community Council has announced it will be awarding a $1,000 Neighborhood Purposes Grant (NPG) to a deserving community organization in February, 2016. Neighborhood Purposes Grants, available to 501(c)(3) organizations and public schools, are available through Los Angeles’ certified Neighborhood Councils each year, but vary in number and amount, at the discretion of each NC. (Each NC has an annual operating budget of $37,000, and may choose how to allocate that money for things like operating expenses, outreach, events and NPGs).
The MCWCC grant will be awarded to a community improvement project in the Mid City West area, which could be anything from a community garden to a neighborhood event. Applications will be judged on their benefit to the Mid City West community, and the project’s feasibility.  The application period opened on September 21, and will close on October 30.  Applications and instructions are available at midcitywest.org/pages/npg-ad-
The city’s Neighborhood Councils have been offering Neighborhood Purpose Grants for several years now, but interestingly, while MCWCC’s offer this year represents a larger amount than the organization has awarded in the past, two other local NCs, the Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council and the Olympic Park Neighborhood Council, which have both awarded multiple grants in past years, have not budgeted for any NPGs this year.
According to Bonnie Strong, vice president of the OPNC and chair of its Outreach Committee, the OPNC has undergone a recent “restructuring” and, as part of that process, suspended its grant program “as we move forward with improving our board.”
And the GWNC, which has in the past awarded approximately $10,000 per year in Neighborhood Purpose Grants, also cut them this year. Â According to GWNC Treasurer Patricia Carroll, the work load for the GWNC, an all-volunteer organization, has grown to the point that it needs to hire a paid administrator to help coordinate its meetings, projects, schedules, events and committees, and the money that used to be used for grants has been necessarily diverted to staff for the current year.